Kicking off the taper

5 mile walk outside (light drizzle) then 2 on the track: 23:52 (lane 2); there was a swarm of students from some sort of fitness program. Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t that hard. But it was better than zilch.

Gun control: there is little that is less pleasant (in terms of social interaction) than to start talking to someone about this issue and have a gun advocate jump in. Even worse: the case when the said advocate thinks that he is smart and logical and accuses me of making a logical error.

Frankly, the time and energy isn’t worth it; it is to the point where I’d like to have some filter that makes someone pass a quiz on basic statistics in order to talk to me.

And no, putting out stupid memes isn’t just a gun advocate problem, nor is it only a conservative problem. I frequently complain about stupid liberal memes.

So, this really isn’t a rant about gun advocates or conservatives (and yes, I have the pleasure of knowing several smart, successful conservatives and I enjoy talking to them) ; it is more about people who think that they know a lot more than they do and, at the same time, lack the intellectual tools to fact check themselves.

But alas, there is no graceful way to say “STFU; you don’t know what you are talking about. Go bother someone else. “

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I keep pondering the gun control issue, and have to admit that I think increased background checks and longer wait periods will not actually do anything to reduce the amount of mass shootings in the US. I think such laws would more likely reduce the rates of suicide by gun, and maybe some of the random shootings.

Also, thinking about the table that I posted, I wonder if the correlation between strict laws and less gun deaths is less about the one potentially causing the other and more about the make-up of those states themselves. Maybe states that are willing to enact strict gun laws have (overall) more sensible, less violent citizens. Does that make any sense? (Or, to be less polite, those states with loose laws and more guns might generally have more idiots?)

I decided not to say any of that on FB, as it’s difficult to explain and hard for people to get nuances.

I’ve read a bit about suicide, and while people who commit it suffer from depression, the moment they actually attempt suicide is often almost a whim, a moment that they feel particularly dark/depressed. In England they have less guns than we do and many of their deaths by suicide were from paracetamol (aspirin) overdoses. They limited the amount of paracetamol in a package, and while attempts didn’t go down, deaths did. I’d think there would be a similar phenomena with suicide and gun deaths. Someone seriously suicidal without access to a gun may still make a suicide attempt, but would be less likely to actually die. Hopefully the outcome would then be treatment for the underlying depression and overall, less deaths by suicide.

I really should give up arguing with idiots. Especially when I have no idea what an actual solution is to the gun problem. I suppose I’m just frustrated with the mass shootings and with those who think they are Rambo and believe more guns are the answer. I’d say “more guns” hasn’t worked for us so far, so maybe we need to try something else.

About Blueollie

To keep track of my sports activities. I rarely train for anything anymore; mostly I just do workouts of the following types: running, walking, weight lifting and swimming. My best ultra accomplishment was walking 101 miles in 24 hours in 2004. These days, I walk a marathon every once in a while (5:30 to 7 hours) There was a time when I could run a sub 40 minute 10K (did that once), but that was another lifetime ago; these a days 2427-2825 25:45-27:45 minutes for a 5K would be more like it. I also have an off and on interest in yoga and in weight training. My lifetime PB in the bench is 310; currently I do sets of 4-5 with 185.

From time to time, I post what I am thinking about mathematically

I often post links to science articles, especially articles about cosmology and evolution.

I am very sympathetic to the “new atheist” movement, though some might consider me to be an agnostic. I reject any notion of a deity that interferes with physical events, but remain agnostic to the idea that there might be something “grand and wonderful” (Dawkins’ phrase) outside of our current spacetime continuum.

I am a liberal Democrat who thinks that the current social atmosphere is tilted way too far toward the interests of big business, and I reject the idea that a “free market” cures all ills, though pure socialism doesn’t work either. I am also a believer in the freedom of speech, including speech that I might not like. Also, I’ve been involved (to a moderate degree) with political campaigns, ranging from City Council races up to Presidential races.

I like to post photos of trips and vacations.

I sometimes blog about boxing matches and baseball, football and basketball games.

I like women in spandex.🙂

Yes, I’ve removed my President Obama stuff. I still like him and I think that he has done a fine job and is continuing to do so. But that campaign is over and has been some time ago. For 2016, I am backing Secretary Clinton.